Chris Stirewalt, the former Fox News political editor who says he was fired after correctly projecting that Joe Biden would win Arizona in the 2020 election, has weighed in on the network’s colossal settlement agreement with Dominion Voting Systems.
In an interview with Semafor media reporter Max Tani following the news of Tuesday’s $787.5 million settlement, Stirewalt said it would be interesting to see who gets ousted this time.
“What does the apology sound like? Who gets fired? What are the consequences inside the company?” he wondered.
He said the network had been looking to “reset” after the 2020 election, but the Dominion lawsuit “sort of froze their approach in place.” Now that it’s settled, he said, the network will need to consider how it approaches the next case in the pipeline ― a separate but similar $2.7 billion lawsuit filed by voting technology company Smartmatic.
“It will be interesting to see what new approach they take,” Stirewalt said.
Stirewalt was let go in the aftermath of right-wing backlash to Fox News calling Arizona for Biden in the 2020 election. He’s since landed roles as NewsNation’s political editor and as a contributing editor of the Dispatch.
He’s been critical of his former employer for putting profits before the truth and amplifying former President Donald Trump’s lies about the 2020 election.
He told Semafor he was not surprised the network settled the lawsuit.
Dominion sued Fox News for $1.6 billion, accusing the media company of defaming it by promoting lies about its role in the 2020 election despite knowing those accusations were untrue. Private correspondence unearthed during the lawsuit suggested that top network executives and hosts thought some of the claims they were broadcasting were ludicrous.
The case was scheduled to go to trial Tuesday, but the parties reached a deal following a reported eleventh-hour push by Fox News to settle the dispute out of court.
Read more from Stirewalt’s interview with Tani here.